Commissioning, the activity of producing lines of products, is a process in which by selecting and combining elements from a plurality of different goods a plurality of element groups is formed. An example is ordering in a department store, where from an overall (basic) assortment or line, a particular order is realized as an ordered assortment or line by selecting groups of elements of different goods and combining the groups. This process can be performed manually or automatically by machines.
The combining or bringing together of a plurality of element groups is a tedious task and involves high logistic expenditure. Frequently this monotonous activity is personnel-intensive and as a result of the high demands on humans is fault-prone. Virtually all organizations are affected as a result of the numerous demands on incoming and outgoing products and there is also a variety of commissioning tasks within an organization, e.g. in stock administration, ordering, work preparation, production, storage and despatch.
An apparatus for assembling product lines (commissioning) and a method for running such apparatus are described in the European patent application No. 91107393.0 (publication No. EP-A1-0457158).